Protein Powder Doughnut Holes
 

These are a favorite Sunday morning breakfast in our house. Taste- and texture-wise, these fall somewhere in between true doughnuts/beignets and funnel cakes. They cook very fast, so make sure you have everything on hand!

1 egg
1/2 stick (1/4 c) butter, melted
2 tbsp Splenda or erythritol
1 tsp vanilla
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
Splenda & cinnamon for topping
Canola oil

Heat about 1 inch of oil in a heavy skillet until it's hot enough for frying. While the oil heats, beat the egg lightly with the melted butter, then add the Splenda, protein powder, and vanilla. Whisk together until all the lumps are pretty much broken up, then let it rest a minute or two and whisk a bit more (batter will still have a grainy look to it, but that's fine). Using a small ladle or large spoon, drop the batter by large tablespoonfuls into the hot oil in batches of 4. Fry until bottoms are golden-brown, which will only take a few seconds, then flip. Drain on paper towels, then sprinkle with Splenda and cinnamon to taste and serve hot.

Makes about 8 doughnut holes, and serves 2-4 depending on how piggy you are.

COUNTS:
Counts are for total recipe, excluding the sprinkled Splenda/cinnamon, and may vary a little bit depending on your brand of whey. The carbs are mostly from the Splenda, so using an alternative heat-stable sweetener will cut the carb count a bit more (I use erythritol).
Calories: 586
Fat: 52g
Carbs: 6g
Protein: 24g

NOTES:
I've made these probably 10 times, and after trying every kind of spoon and pouring implement in my kitchen, I use an ice cream scoop for the batter -- it seems to give me the most control. The batter manages to be both thick and liquidy, and it takes some practice to figure out the trick to pouring.

These are easier to flip neatly if you use your spatula to dribble a little oil over the tops of them while the first sides are cooking. The batter will still be liquidy in the center at that point, and it will spill out when flipped; but if you use a little oil to make a "skin" on the tops, you'll get nice round doughnuts.

If you prefer funnel-cakes, you can pour the battter into the oil in ribbons, but be aware that this goes even more quickly than the holes!

You could easily fool around with other flavors of whey protein -- chocolate and praline both sound appealing -- to tweak these up. I'm working on using natural-flavored whey and no sweetener to make sausage balls and other little savories.

Atlee,
I made these last night, they were really good! Much better than another doughnut recipe I found, and much lower in carbs too!!

Thanks!

Jenn

I also tried these and they are great. Like Jade74, I think that they are much better than another low carb donut recipe that I found.

Glad you guys liked them!

These are very good!!! They will be great for breakfast on the go. Next time I am going to try Chocolate Protein Powder... and maybe some nuts. Thanks for sharing.

donuts help
 

I tried this recipe for donuts
Donuts
1 egg
1/2 stick (1/4 c) butter, melted
2 tbsp Splenda or erythritol
1 tsp vanilla
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
Splenda & cinnamon for topping
Canola oil

Heat about 1 inch of oil in a heavy skillet until it's hot enough for frying. While the oil heats, beat the egg lightly with the melted butter, then add the Splenda, protein powder, and vanilla. Whisk together until all the lumps are pretty much broken up, then let it rest a minute or two and whisk a bit more (batter will still have a grainy look to it, but that's fine). Using a small ladle or large spoon, drop the batter by large tablespoonfuls into the hot oil in batches of 4. Fry until bottoms are golden-brown, which will only take a few seconds, then flip. Drain on paper towels, then sprinkle with Splenda and cinnamon to taste and serve hot.

Makes about 8 doughnut holes, and serves 2-4 depending on how piggy you are.

COUNTS:
Counts are for total recipe, excluding the sprinkled Splenda/cinnamon, and may vary a little bit depending on your brand of whey. The carbs are mostly from the Splenda, so using an alternative heat-stable sweetener will cut the carb count a bit more (I use erythritol).
Calories: 586
Fat: 52g
Carbs: 6g
Protein: 24g


I didn't have the protein powder so I used my atkins vanilla shake mix instead. The whole recipe was a big flop. I am guessing you really have to have the protein powder but I can't find it anywhere. anyone kjnow of another donut recipe i can try

What brand of whey protein powder do you use? Also..is the carb count per donut or for the whole recipe? Annie

Carb counts are for entire recipe. I personally use Designer Whey French Vanilla or Vanilla Praline, which is available from online merchants like netrition.com, from health food stores, or from nutrition stores like GNC. I've never tried it with other brands, but I don't think it should make a big difference -- just be sure that whatever brand you buy is artificially sweetened, only a gram or two of carbs per scoop, as there are some sugar-sweetened whey protein mixes on the market.

As for substituting Atkins shake mix, I can just imagine how that wouldn't work at all! The Atkins mixes do contain whey protein, but they've got lots of other ingredients designed to help them dissolve quickly and smoothly in liquid. Whey protein powder is much coarser and grainier, and it gets really sticky when you add smaller amounts of liquids to it. Also, the Atkins shake mix I have came with a rather small scoop, so that the serving size was listed as two scoops; however, a normal scoop of whey protein is 1/3 c, and that's what I mean in my recipe.

Hi Atlee,

Is it possible to bake the donuts rather than deep-frying them?

Thanks

I've made something similar to this (recipe below) and it wouldn't work at all to bake them, because before they start to fry they are unformed batter - far to liquidy to bake.

From the Protein Power Recipe Board:

Funnel Cakes

3 T water
2 eggs
2 T heavy cream
1 T oil
1 C whey protein powder
1 T baking powder
1/3 C splenda

How about useing 1/3 cup almond flour? sounds good! I don't have any protein powder.
jacki

I think it would be interesting to try these with at least part almond flour. I don't have a good sense of how it would affect them, but it seems possible to me that it would work. They would have less protein, of course.

Made the donuts this morning for my kids and before i could look around,,they were scoffed and gone!! :lol:
This is a great recipe, THANKS :yum: :wave:

I don't know from experience how successful they would be if you replaced part/all of the protein powder with almond flour, which lacks the sticky, gooey quality of whey protein, but I'm not optimistic. The "breadiness" of these comes from the protein/egg combo, and I'm afraid that if you dumped the whey, you'd just wind up with scrambled eggs with little gritty bits. I've never tried doing that, but I've done a lot of baking with protein powder and almond flour, and generally they are not interchangeable. Remember, almond "flour" is really not flour in the chemical sense, it's just very finely ground nuts. It provides body in baked goods, but doesn't produce any kind of chemical interaction with protein and fat in the same way that white/wheat/oat and other grain flours do. For example, you can't thicken a sauce with it, and baked goods made with it won't rise naturally (you have to use baking powder, egg foams, or other tricks like that).

To sum up, I'd stick with whey, which is not too difficult to come by -- Designer Whey is my preferred brand, and it's available at pretty much every health/nutrition store I've ever seen (GNC, Smoothie King, etc) or online. It's useful stuff to have around, since it is a VERY popular ingredient in LC baking.

I can't wait to try these! They sound absolutely sinful.

Atlee, I bow down to you!! lol. I made those right when I saw the recipe. Can you say super yummy!! For the past few days I've been skimming the recipe forum, but they're not all that convenient. This was as easy as who knows what!

I ate the whole batter thing, but i used just a little bit of oil and made them into pancake thingies. I topped them with butter and voila! the yummiest thing!

It's because of people like you who are so creative that will keep me low carbing.

Thanks!

Atlee! You have the best recipes and LC baking advice! I can't wait to try these! :thup:

Fellow 'Pegger with a question
 

I would like to try your recipe, however I have been unable to find erythritol in Winnipeg...
Do you know of a local supplier?

a review
 

YUM, these were excellent (and easy - yay)!! Even BF, who is excruciatingly picky, said these were fantastic. He said "if they sold these in a store, I would buy them". Huge compliment from him! LOL

Thanks for sharing!

I made these in vanilla with Designer Whey but the other day I was out of it...so I experimented. Here is a variation I came up with that was sooo good.
1/3 c Carb Sol'n chocolate shake mix
1 tbsp Atkins cappocino shake mix
1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
2 eggs
1 tbsp heavy cream
4 tbsp butter
sweetener to taste-- I used 5 packets of Splenda, plus one to sprinkle on top

I whipped the eggs and butter, then folded in everything else. It makes a pretty thick batter. I made 8 little pancakes in a skillet, fried in a little (1 tbsp) Mac Nut oil. Sprinkled tops w the last Splenda packet. Yummy!

Help.
 

I know. I am new to this forum but have done low carbing before. I usually have good luck. I loved the taste of these doughnuts even without vanilla in it and splenda as a topper. Just used cinnamon. The problem I had was when I put them in the pan they did not stay together. Well some did. I think I would have had at least 4 more doughnut holes if it had not spread out. I wonder if the brand of whey protein makes a difference. Anyone have any input on this? I just checked my brand and it does not say the name on it. Is made in Boca Grande florida. I dont even remember where I bought it from. Was either Costco or Walmart. Think I will get some of that Designer Whey Protein. Maybe that will work better.
My dog loved them also. :D

Where do you get the erythritol? I checked at my health food store and they did not have it.

puffysmom, I know this reply is late, but hopefully you will still see it. Try dropping the mixture in more rapidly, as one big dollup rather than pouring it in gradually. Using a clean finger to push the whole spoonload off the spoon and into the oil in one go helped me make real donuts instead of lots of frizzy dribble all over the surface. Hope that helps!

As for erythritol, if you can't find it just use the splenda specified in the recipe instead. It turns out fine!

Em

WOW!!!!!!!! i just made these for an after dinner snack (craving donuts and didn't want t ocheat) and they were sooo great! i used the chocolate whey powder and i will definitely be making this again...very soon!! hahaha!!! it is a wonderful LC snack and so so easy!

thanks atlee!!

Great recipe! If you could take a moment and check the teeny tiny print on the bottom of your Designer Whey scoop, and let me know if it's the 60mL size or 'other', I'd really appreciate it. The scoops do vary between brands (and sometimes container sizes), so I just pull all my scoops and use measuring cups...leaving me scratching my head as to which scoop came out of my DW Vanilla Praline protein powder.

Thanks!

I can't wait to make these, I have made the pancakes with my protein powder and they were awesome. Wow I love this forum!!! Thanks for the recipe.

Islandgirl, not sure if you found this yourself but Atlee mentioned on the first page that she meant a 1/3 cup scoop. Hope that helps and sorry the reply is a week late!

Em

Wow these are great. A keeper.
Made the doughnuts for my breakfast Christmas morning as a treat while the rest of my family had their sticky buns. One of my sons choose to help me eat the doughnuts instead.
For New Years morning I made it into funnel cakes and put some whipped cream on top. All 4 of the boys were picking at them. They wouldn't leave them alone. They said that it was way better than my old high carb recipe I used to make.
Thanks Atlee.

Oh MY, these are Great,, I liked them so much that I made a batch of vanilla nd Chocolate,, now I wonder how long do they keep before getting a stale taste?? My son will devour lots when he gets home from school, but I wonder how they will taste tomorrow?? thanks for the great and easy recipe..